To increase a throughput of a UE (user equipment), in a macro cell, a plurality of small stations may be introduced to form a small cell, and a small cell can cover a hotspot region or cover a hole region. In this way, when a UE moves to these regions covered by small cells, a service of the UE can be switched to these small cells to implement service offload or coverage compensation. These small stations may be small base stations, micro base stations, home base stations, RRHs (remote radio heads), or relay stations.
For example, in an existing CA (carrier aggregation) technology, an RRH is located under coverage (for example, a hotspot region) of a base station, and the RRH and the base station have different frequencies. A backhaul manner of an optical fiber connection is adopted between the RRH and the base station, and an optical fiber has characteristics such as a low delay and a large bandwidth. When a UE is under coverage of the RRH, the base station performs centralized scheduling, and the base station and the RRH transmit data to the UE at the same time in a carrier aggregation manner, thereby increasing a throughput of the UE.
In another example, in an existing CoMP (coordinated multiple points transmission) technology, an RRH is located under coverage (for example, a hotspot region) of a base station, and the RRH and the base station have a same frequency. A backhaul manner of an optical fiber connection is adopted between the RRH and the base station, and an optical fiber has characteristics such as a low delay and a large bandwidth. When a UE is under coverage of the RRH, the base station performs centralized scheduling, and the base station and the RRH coordinate to transmit data to the UE to increase a throughput of the UE.
In the foregoing existing mechanisms, the base station performs centralized scheduling and processing. Specifically, a protocol layer of the base station includes: a PDCP (packet data convergence protocol) layer, an RLC (radio link control) layer, a MAC (medium access control) layer, a Phy (physical) layer, and the like. The base station encapsulates a data packet and allocates a radio resource and then sends, through an optical fiber, the encapsulated data packet and the radio resource used by the RRH to the RRH. The rapid transmission of an optical fiber has almost a zero delay, guaranteeing that the RRH sends the encapsulated data packet to the UE on a radio interface based on an order that the base station schedules the RRH and the radio resource. Therefore, the UE is capable of decoding correctly, and confusion does not occur.
However, a backhaul link deployed with an optical fiber has high cost. For carriers who demand lower cost, a backhaul link deployed with an optical fiber is an excessively ideal network. In existing networks of many carriers, most are ordinary backhaul links, such as an Ethernet, an xDSL (digital subscriber line), or microwave. An ordinary backhaul link has a larger delay (for example, 10 ms to 20 ms) and a smaller bandwidth compared with an optical fiber backhaul link. If the CoMP or CA technology is adopted, data scheduled by a base station needs to be transmitted through a backhaul link to each RRH for subsequent transmission. As delays from the base station to RRHs are different, the base station practically cannot effectively control the moment of sending data, which might cause that data of two RRHs is transmitted on one same radio resource, resulting in strong interference and further a failure in implementing CoMP or CA. Also, for CoMP or CA, data that a base station transfers to an RRH through a backhaul link is modulated, encoded, and the like, and a size of data becomes larger, which occupies a larger bandwidth and forms a great challenge for an ordinary backhaul link.
Therefore, in an ordinary backhaul link, due to limits of delay and bandwidth for a backhaul link of a carrier, an RRH cannot be deployed to implement multiple points transmission. The problem to be solved by the present disclosure is how to implement multiple points transmission by lowering a delay requirement on a backhaul link based on an existing limited backhaul link.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communication method and device, so as to lower a delay requirement on a backhaul link.
According to a first aspect, a communication method is provided. The method includes: determining, by a base station, first resource configuration information, where the first resource configuration information is used for indicating N radio resource sets that are used when N radio communication nodes separately perform communication with a user equipment UE, N is a positive integer, a radio resource in each radio resource set among the N radio resource sets is used for the radio communication node corresponding to each radio resource set to schedule the UE, and the radio resource includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; and sending the first resource configuration information to the UE, so that the UE communicates with the corresponding radio communication node by using the radio resource in the N radio resource sets; where, the UE communicates with a corresponding transmission point by using respective radio resource sets of transmission points, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the N radio resource sets, and the transmission points include the N radio communication nodes.
According to a second aspect, a communication method is provided. The method includes: receiving, by a first radio communication node, information that is about a second configuration parameter and sent by an operation, administration and maintenance OAM device; or, determining, by a first radio communication node, a second configuration parameter according to a first coordination request message received from a base station, and sending the information about a second configuration parameter to the base station, where the second configuration parameter includes a first radio resource set used for communication between the first radio communication node and a user equipment UE, and a radio resource in the first radio resource set includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; and, scheduling, by the first radio communication node, the radio resource in the first radio resource set to communicate with the UE, where the first radio communication node is one of transmission points that communicate with the UE, the UE communicates with the transmission point by using a radio resource in the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, and the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the first radio resource set.
According to a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided. The method includes: determining, by a base station, first resource configuration information, where the first resource configuration information is used for indicating N radio resource sets that are used when N radio communication nodes separately perform communication with a user equipment UE, N is a positive integer, a radio resource in each radio resource set among the N radio resource sets is used for the radio communication node corresponding to each radio resource set to schedule the UE, and the radio resource includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; and sending, by the base station, configuration information of corresponding radio resource sets among the N radio resource sets to the N radio communication nodes separately, so that the N radio communication nodes schedule the radio resources in respective radio resource sets to communicate with the UE, where the UE communicates with a corresponding transmission point by using respective radio resource sets of transmission points, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the N radio resource sets, and the transmission points include the N radio communication nodes.
According to a fifth aspect, a communication method is provided. The method includes: receiving, by a first radio communication node, information that is about a fourth configuration parameter and sent by an operation, administration and maintenance OAM device; or, determining, by the first radio communication node, a fourth configuration parameter according to a second coordination request message received from the base station, and sending information about a fourth configuration parameter to the base station, where the second coordination request message carries information about a fourth configuration parameter configured by the base station for communication between the first radio communication node and the UE; where, the fourth configuration parameter includes a first radio resource set used for communication between the first radio communication node and a user equipment UE, and a radio resource in the first radio resource set includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; and scheduling, by the first radio communication node, the radio resource in the first radio resource set to communicate with the UE, where the first radio communication node is one of transmission points that communicate with the UE; communicating, by the UE, with the transmission point by using a radio resource in the respective radio resource set of the transmission point, where the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, and the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the first radio resource set.
According to a sixth aspect, a base station is provided. The base station includes: a determining unit, configured to determine first resource configuration information, where the first resource configuration information is used for indicating N radio resource sets that are used when N radio communication nodes separately perform communication with a user equipment UE, N is a positive integer, a radio resource in each radio resource set among the N radio resource sets is used for the radio communication node corresponding to each radio resource set to schedule the UE, and the radio resource includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; a sending unit, configured to send the first resource configuration information determined by the determining unit to the UE, so that the UE communicates with the corresponding radio communication node by using the radio resource in the N radio resource sets; where, the UE communicates with a corresponding transmission point by using respective radio resource sets of a transmission points, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the N radio resource sets, and the transmission points include the N radio communication nodes.
According to a seventh aspect, a radio communication node is provided. The radio communication node includes: a receiving unit, configured to receive information that is about a second configuration parameter and sent by a base station or an operation, administration and maintenance OAM device; a determining unit, configured to determine a second configuration parameter according to the information that is about a second configuration parameter and received by the receiving unit; where the second configuration parameter includes a first radio resource set used for communication between the first radio communication node and a user equipment UE, and a radio resource in the first radio resource set includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; a scheduling unit, configured to schedule the radio resource in the first radio resource set determined by the determining unit to communicate with the UE; where the first radio communication node is one of transmission points that communicate with the UE, the UE communicates with the transmission point by using a radio resource in the respective radio resource set of the transmission point, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, and the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the first radio resource set.
According to an eighth aspect, a user equipment is provided. The user equipment includes: a receiving unit, configured to receive first resource configuration information sent by a base station; and                a controlling unit, configured to:        acquire the first resource configuration information received by the receiving unit, where the first resource configuration information is used for indicating N radio resource sets that are used when N radio communication nodes separately perform communication with a user equipment UE, N is a positive integer, a radio resource in each radio resource set among the N radio resource sets is used for the radio communication node corresponding to each radio resource set to schedule the UE, and the radio resource includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource; and        control the receiving unit to communicate with a transmission point by using a radio resource in respective radio resource sets of transmission points, where the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points do not intersect, the respective radio resource sets of the transmission points include the N radio resource sets, and the transmission points include the N radio communication nodes.        
In the foregoing solutions, a base station delivers configuration information of a radio resource set used by a radio communication node that participates in multiple points transmission to a UE, radio resource sets used by the base station and the radio communication node do not intersect or radio resource sets used by a plurality of radio communication nodes do not intersect, and a radio resource in the radio resource set is used for a radio communication node corresponding to the radio resource set to schedule the UE. In this way, a base station does not need to schedule a radio resource during communication between a UE and a radio communication node so that the UE exchanges information with the base station and the radio communication nodes on corresponding radio resources separately. Therefore, multiple points transmission can also be implemented even when a backhaul link has a large delay, thereby lowering a delay requirement on a backhaul link.